Sten Mk III questions

I'm getting around to building my semiauto Sten (SAS3 kit), and I came across a couple of questions.

1) I'd like to build with rivets instead of welding the trunnions to the barrel; is this advisable, feasible, or recommended? Is it a no-no? If this is okay (I assume so, since the original was riveted), then what rivets are used? Mild steel? Stainless?

2) Assuming that it's okay to rivet the trunnions, where can one find small quantities of rivets? I've found places that are willing to sell thousands of rivets, but not a small quantity like I need.

3) The new SAS3 kit doesn't have the rods threaded into the slug. Are these supposed to be welded, or to just float?

Well they used to use the rivets to hold the trunnions then theyd silver solder them in place. if you want to make it easy just use torx scres in place of the rivets, then you can silver solder if you want or putthread lock on the threads. i have a set of rivets that are supposed to be for the sten, let me think about it i may sell them because im going to screw muild my sas3. Hmm my 2 rods are threaded on one end to screw into the slug, you may want to contact them on that. Good luck. im making mine a pistol so i can get around the 922r crap. although the pistol grip i got is to big i will make it work. I just need to cut about a 1/4 in out of the top and bottem then reweld.

~ Czolgosz, Leon (1873-1902)
"I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people, the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime."

I've got the new style kit, with the slightly turned ID on the rear. The new slug is much shorter. Mine was not tapped, nor were the rods threaded. I suppose I could drill new holes and tap them, and then thread the rods. I've heard that something like silver solder is required to keep the rods from getting banged free once the darned thing starts shooting.

im not sure how old my kit is but the rear section where the cap goes is turned down, the only thing about that is that i still had to take material off of the cap, because it wasnt turned far enough down into the tube. but like i said my rods came threaded, and the lil slug came threaded for the rods.

~ Czolgosz, Leon (1873-1902)
"I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people, the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime."

Your slug is a lot longer than mine. My slug is just 1/2" thick. As I said, no threads on the rods nor tapped holes in the slug. A tap and die and a bit of work should take care of that quickly, though. Or I could weld the rod into the slug. Not sure which way to go.